Emmanuel Thomas l Wednesday, June 14, 2017
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The battle for the soul of All Progressive Congress, APC in Rivers State is getting messy.
Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who is seen as leader of the party, has allegedly ordered that supporters of Dr. Dakuku Peterside be removed from leadership in the party structure, right from the ward level to the local government and the State Working Committee, SWC.
Sources within the party informed our correspondent that the purpose is to whittle down Peterside’s chances if he decides to contest the governorship primaries scheduled for 2018.
Peterside who is the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, was Amaechi’s candidate in the 2015, gubernatorial election.
He lost the election to current governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike. He and his party approached the State Election Petition Tribunal which sat at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, at the behest of the Supreme Court.
Peterside won at the tribunal and, again, at the Court of Appeal. But on January 27, 2016, Wike recorded a shocking triumph at the Supreme Court and in the process halting Peterside’s ambition to succeed Amaechi as governor.
About six weeks, thereafter, Amaechi recommended Dakuku to President Mohammadu Buhari for appointment as the director-general of NIMASA and was appointed on Thursday, March 10, 2016.
Peterside’s appointment was announced through a statement signed by Yetunde Sonaike, Director, Public Relations, Ministry of Transportation, in Abuja. The appointment was with immediate effect. NIMASA is a parastatal under the ministry of transportation, supretended by Amaechi. But since taking the job, it has been a tale of love gone sour between the two.
Amaechi is unwilling to support Dakuku in taking another shot at the governorship in 2019, under the aegis of the APC. But sources close to Dakuku claim he is still keen on running for the governorship.
The minister of transportation had at various fora, in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt referred to Dakuku as “a weak politician who cannot fight his political battles after all that I have done for him. I have settled Dakuku”.”I want to choose a fighter to be our flag bearer in 2019, but, definitely, not Dakuku. He cannot deliver and does not have the stamina to fight his own fight.”
Dakuku who was in Rivers State two weeks ago, was shocked at the cold reception he received from even those who had worked so hard in their collective pursuit to actualise his 2015 candidature which did not come to fruition.
The director-general of NIMASA told a top notcher in the APC in Rivers State that he was “uncomfortable with the cold and unfriendly disposition of erstwhile party supporters towards me. I cannot understand why I am suddenly being treated like an orphan in a party that I was the governorship candidate barely two years, ago.”
According to a source, ” Dakuku and Senator Magnus Abe worked very hard with Amaechi in 2014 to bring APC to Rivers State. But Abe and Dakuku have fallen out of Amaechi’s political compass because of 2019 governorship election. Who will represent the party is now in serious contention.”
Dakuku is being viciously lampooned by Amaechi and some top brass in the party for “deliberately shying away from extending political patronage and largesse to other members of the party.”
The long queue of APC members at Dakuku’s residence, in Port Harcourt, during his visits to the state have withered tremendously. Amaechi, according to a source, “has asked for total loyalty to his leadership, threatening that anyone hobnobbing with Dakuku, or Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, will be sanctioned.”
A former local government chairman who served under Amaechi’s government said the party may be heading towards a major catastrophe if the national leadership of the party fails to intervene to save the APC in Rivers State.
“Three weeks ago, some of us, former local government chairmen, commissioners and some chairmen of government parastatals, who served under Amaechi, met with Dakuku,in Lagos, to brain storm on how to ameliorate the deepening rift within the leadership of the APC in Rivers State.
The issue at stake is straight forward: “What calibre of candidate do we present at the 2019 governorship election? Who amongst the candidates angling for the governorship ticket would better guarantee the political careers of active members of the party in 2019?”
“We all reached a consensus that all interested applicants should be allowed to vie for the APC’s governorship primary. Anything short of that will severely decimate the party in Rivers State. As we speak, Amaechi has ordered that all the leaders of the party who are lining up to support Senator Abe should be relieved of their positions.”
“It was at the meeting with Dakuku that we learnt that the minister of transportation is not comfortable with what he considers “Abe’s independent mind’. We are really going though a very terrible leadership crisis in the APC in Rivers State. You have not heard anything, yet.”
The most troubling development is that Amaechi has asked all paraststals under the ministry of transportation not to extend any political patronage to any member of the APC that is supportive of Senator Abe’s quest to vie for the 2019 governorship on the platform of the APC.”
One of the local government chairmen disclosed: “You may be shocked to hear that the Director of Finance and Administration of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Derek Mene, is being serially threatened by Amaechi for his perceived loyalty to Abe.”
The minister has threatened him on several occasions that he has the power and connections to remove him from the management team of the federal interventionist agency. We feel for the young man, but what can we do in this circumstance?”
“Amaechi addressed some of his supporters in Abuja, a week ago, and assured those present at the meeting that he has compiled a list of all APC leaders in Rivers State, and he will ensure that those who are supporting Senator Abe are removed from their leadership positions within the different power strata of the party.”
But a former commissioner in Amaechi’s government prayed that he does not carry out his threat because that will herald the beginning of the end of APC in Rivers State as we all know it today.
“If the national leadership fails to intervene, the fallout of the simmering crisis will be too painful to imagine.”, he said.
